NBA commissioner David Stern recently hinted that the Olympics could become an under-23 tournament.Getty Images
/ The Province

National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern certainly raised some eyebrows at his press conference prior to the start of the final between Oklahoma City and Miami Tuesday night when he hinted at the Olympics becoming an under-23 tournament in the years to come.

And as many have come to realize, what the NBA, USA Basketball and the Olympic Games want, they tend to get. And we say Olympic Games here because Stern tends not to drop these little suggestions for fun or without doing some checking with the IOC first. If he's bringing it up, there's a good chance it's already in motion.

But there are a couple of significant problems in this with respect to the rest of the world and the question here is whether the NBA and the American television audience and all the power that comes with that audience is going to be enough to pull this off.

On a straight athletic basis, it would give the U.S. a remarkable advantage in getting a gold medal because they, like no other country, would have more outstanding players 23 years and younger than any other country simply because of their college sys-tem, which turns out thousands of such players every year.

Countries with nowhere near that kind of depth can compete now with the Americans because all their best players participate no matter what age they might be, because in most cases they feel obligated.

And given there are only five guys on court at one time, the smaller nations using all their best players can sometimes hang with the U.S. Under the new system being suggested, the one being used by FIBA for the men's soccer tournament at the Olympic level now, virtually nobody would be able to stay with whatever American team was dispatched to the Olympics.

Canada, for instance, might be fine for the next Olympics in 2016 were it to be brought in that quickly, although the more likely timing is for 2020. Because by the next Olympics after this summer in London most of this country's young up and coming players might still qualify under that age group in 2016, but after that they would be in the same boat as every other country trying to match up to the American depth.

Stern clearly has the NBA's motives at heart to get involved in this kind of depreciation of the Olympics. And make no mistake, it is definitely a blow to the Olympics, which is supposed to be an open competition among the best in the world, professional or amateur.

In his capacity in the NBA, Stern is trying to take the pressure off his league's veteran players by getting them eliminated from the obligation of having to play for their country or receive a tor-rent of abuse, simply by making them ineligible. That way, they are much fresher and better pre-pared to handle the rigours of his own league with its gruelling travel and playoff schedule.

In the case of some of the inter-nationals who have long careers and find themselves entangled in the Olympic and world championship morass every year, the break every four years might in fact prolong their careers.

And further, in keeping what would be the ultimate dream team off the floor permanently, it would make sure that the NBA is the premier basketball attraction in the world at all times. And FIBA would love to take down the Olympics, thereby making their world championships the premier world event. Works for everyone, save the IOC and its fans.

The question here is whether the rest of the world, which presumably constitutes the IOC, will go along with this or resist on competitive or other grounds.

For starters, it is plainly and clearly a watering down of the Olympic brand. Instead of having the world's best players, you have something less.

And surely there may be concern at some point that limiting these sports by age as has been the case with men's soccer is very much the same as limiting their competitions on the basis of sex, thus opening them up to a horde of legal challenges of discrimination.

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